I’ve climbed the highest mountains, searched the darkest depths of the public library and even asked my mother. Still I come up with a blank. So here’s my question: have you ever looked at your zipper? I mean really looked? On 90 percent of them there are the letters YKK. Please tell me what YKK means so I can again know inner peace. –Ken Green, Chicago
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It means Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha. However, this leaves us about a foot shy of filling up the column, so here’s a little bonus info: YKK translated means Yoshida Industries Limited. Tadao Yoshida is the Japanese tycoon who founded the company in 1934 and built it into “the foremost manufacturer of closures [zippers, mostly] in the world.” It’s unfortunate that YKK is not better known, but we must face the fact that a zipper is not the ideal billboard–the only time you get close enough to read the lettering, typically your mind is on other things.
The great thing about reality, Kirk, is that there’s more than one right answer. (Which is not to say there’s an unlimited number of right answers. This ain’t the freaking Esalen Institute, you know.) Thanks for broadening our horizons.
